Tuesday, April 2, 2013

follow your intuition

I've been a naughty writer. Last week I didn't write any new words. The previous week I didn't write any new words. I don't think I wrote anything new the previous week either. And maybe even the week before that. Ugh. :(
Sure, I did revisions and submissions and critiques and all manner of other writerly-related tasks, but I didn't WRITE. Suffice it to say I was feeling very grumpy about it, too. I managed to put myself in quite a foul mood.
Why so much procrastination, you ask? Every time I tried to work on a particular WIP it felt like pulling teeth. I couldn't make myself put the words on the screen. I was hating the WIP. I considered abandoning the WIP.

But then I took a step back. Rather than try to force the WIP to go where I thought it should go, where else could it go? I brainstormed. What could happen, rather than what should happen? I thought of some new fresh ideas. I decided to abandon the old stale ideas, and, Huzzah! suddenly, I could write new stuff again. I wrote two chapters this week and have lots of ideas for additional chapters.

Yes, apparently, it is difficult to teach old writers new tricks. I should have listened to my intuition weeks ago. If something doesn't feel right, it's probably not right.
Intuition is there for a reason! Follow it!

How about you? Have you ever tried to ignore your intuition? What happened?

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